ALBANIA: New Stooge

Albania's Tito-built Communist Party, still
loyal to Stalin, summoned its leaders to a crisis conclave this week.
As 360 delegates converged on Tirana (pop. 30,800), it looked very much
as if Party Boss Enver Hoxha was being superseded by Party General
Secretary Mehmet Shehu.

Behind both, working the strings, was Russian Puppetmaster Dimitri
Chuvakhin, the Soviet minister. Albania, the weakest Soviet satellite,
is not even a member of Russia's Cominfofm. Yet if Titoism erupted in
Albania, Stalin might blame Tito, seize upon Albania as an excuse to
send troops into Yugoslavia.